


Secret Sounds

by makokitten



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: M/M, Overhearing Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-05-24
Packaged: 2018-01-26 09:50:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1683995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makokitten/pseuds/makokitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inside the room, Will Graham is gasping, and he's begging for something, and Abigail thinks that Hannibal probably isn’t killing him, although she never can be absolutely sure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secret Sounds

* * *

            Hannibal Lecter is kind to Abigail, but there are rules. When he is expecting company, she is to remain out of sight. When he isn’t expecting company, he allows her to roam freely in the house as long as she tells him what she touches and only touches what she needs. That makes it easy for him to wipe her prints away later, and make it so she’s never been there.

            But even with that freedom, Abigail mostly stays in her room, which is where Hannibal told her to stay when he first brought her here. She likes it in her room. It’s warm, and clean, and she has more books than she could ever read, she thinks. She’s currently making her way very, very slowly through the _Divine Comedy_ , which she hopes will impress her guardian. 

            When Dr. Bloom stays the night, Abigail sits on her bed, quiet as a mouse, highlighting passages to discuss with Hannibal later. Her copy of the book is an old paperback and has no collectible value, so she hopes that he won’t mind that she marks it up. And he doesn’t; when she presents it to him in the morning, after Dr. Bloom goes on her way, he praises her for doing what all scholars do, and they sit down together to discuss the lines that tug at her most. 

            Aside from those little interruptions, Abigail’s life is so regular that her mostly days blend together into an off-white sort of paste. She gets enough to eat, and more than enough sleep. When she has nightmares, Hannibal comforts her, and when she needs that comfort, she walks to his room. Usually, his door is open, and he listens as the poisonous words and images of her dreams spill out of her until she is empty, and then he accompanies her back to her safe space.

            Tonight, Abigail awakens, drenched in sweat, convinced for a moment that the liquid clinging to her skin is the blood of her dead best friend. She stumbles down the hallway to Hannibal’s door but finds it closed to her, and irritation prickles her skin because he hadn’t told her Dr. Bloom was staying over. And then the irritation is gone, because there’s no room for anything but from shock after she hears next: Hannibal’s voice, all velvet and thunder, a few shades different from the one he’d use with Dr. Bloom. The voice that responds is not Dr. Bloom’s.

            Outside the room, Abigail covers her mouth with both her hands, nightmare forgotten, and whispers, “Oh my god,” just as Will Graham, inside the room, says the same thing, but for a very different reason. 

            She doesn’t know what to do but fall back against the wall and sink slowly to the floor, unsure of whether she should laugh or gasp or cry. Inside the room, Will Graham is gasping, and he's begging for something, and Abigail thinks that Hannibal probably isn’t killing him, although she never can be absolutely sure.

            Her cheeks tingle. She pulls her knees close so she can rest her head on them, knowing that she shouldn’t stay and listen but unable to bring herself to leave. Something like horror bubbles up within her even as an inappropriate smile keeps sneaking its way onto her face, because there’s strange glee in the thought that Will is so close, that he and Hannibal are so close. She had known they were close, but not like that. Not entirely like that.

            The noise crescendos and then dies down, eventually. Abigail hardly notices because her own blood thrums so loudly in her eardrums, but at the end of it all she hears Hannibal say Will’s name, and doesn’t hear him reply. She does hear the creak of the door, and recognizes the faint sounds of Hannibal’s bare feet on the hardwood floor. She doesn’t look up at him, and all he says, very softly, is, “Go back to bed, Abigail.”

            Abigail unfolds herself little by little, like a newborn fawn. Hannibal helps her to her feet and turns her in the right direction. As she makes her way back to her bed on unsteady legs, she wonders if this means she’ll get to see Will Graham again soon. She thinks she would like that, under the right circumstances.


End file.
